Minnesota charities were seen as the winners last month when lawmakers said they would push for electronic pull-tab games to be the state’s main funding source for a new Vikings stadium.

But without final details about what the deal might mean for them, the groups are wondering just what it is they have won.

“That’s what we don’t know,” said King Wilson, executive director of Allied Charities of Minnesota, which represents charitable gaming interests.

“I bet you I had more calls last week than I had in the two or three months before that,” Wilson said. “We’re trying to ask folks to be patient. But quite frankly, it’s frustrating.”

More than 1,200 nonprofit groups around the state offer paper pull-tab games in bars and restaurants as fundraisers for local school and civic causes.

The groups have long argued they’re taxed too heavily. Of roughly $80 million in net profits in 2009, they paid about $37 million in taxes and had $43 million left to contribute to community programs.

But since any relief from that tax burden was unlikely with the state facing huge budget deficits, the groups needed a new revenue source. Electronic version of paper pull-tabs, they believe, will draw more players, especially young people.

The state Department of Revenue estimates authorizing e-pull-tabs would generate $72 million per year in new tax money for the state.

Rep. Morrie Lanning, R-Moorhead, the key stadium promoter in the House, said the charities will get a piece of that.

“I have assured them that there will be significant tax relief,” Lanning said, though no number has been settled on.

Part of the uncertainty stems from the fact that nobody is sure how much of the $72 million the state will need to finance its share of the stadium project.

Gov. Mark Dayton has estimated it would take more than $30 million annually to finance the state’s $340 million portion of a rebuilt stadium on the Metrodome site. Others have said more might be required because bonding houses could perceive gambling revenue as a risky source of money.

“People can make an educated guess,” said Minnesota Management and Budget office spokesman John Pollard, but “we’re not prepared to do that. We don’t have enough information yet in order to give a good, accurate estimate.”

Wilson didn’t specify what share the charities need to make the plan work, but he said if it turns out the state takes roughly half the $72 million for a stadium and devotes the other half to tax relief, “I think we can have some meaningful discussions, and I think something is workable.” The problem, he said, is “there’s other people bandying about much smaller numbers.

“It’s simple: The higher the number the state needs for the stadium, the less money that’s available to do reform and relief, which is our priority,” Wilson said.

“At some point, we’re hoping somebody will touch base and say ‘You know, we’re thinking X,’ and then I can look and say, ‘Well if we do X, here’s what I think we can do for reform,’ ” he said. “We’ve heard no number.”

And it’s not clear that being tied to the Vikings stadium is helping the groups’ cause.

“Our bill was not designed to build a stadium. Our bill was designed to give tax relief and reform via electronic pull-tabs and bingo so that we would have additional funding for the bottom line so we can do the many worthy programs and projects these 1,200 charities do,” Wilson said.

He said some lawmakers tell him being part of the stadium package will cost him votes, while others say there’s no way he’ll get tax relief without being part of the Vikings deal. “I think that’s a real mixed bag.”

Wilson said someone likened putting the Vikings deal together to playing 3D chess: “If we move this to here, it creates five other problems.”

He said his biggest fear is that the stadium issue gets pushed off till next year and delays the pull-tab question along with it. “My folks need tax reform and relief and increased revenue now,” he said.

Bob Matson, a consultant to the charitable gaming industry, said about every week for the past few years an organization drops out of gaming. Facing falling receipts, numerous regulations and a high tax burden, “some say enough’s enough,” he said.

To maintain the health of the industry, Matson said, “I’d certainly like to see some action before long.”

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